Pinto Colvig
| birth_place = Jacksonville, Oregon, U.S. | death_date = | death_place = Woodland Hills, California, U.S. | othername = | alma_mater = Oregon State University | occupation = Actor, voice actor, newspaper cartoonist, circus performer | yearsactive = 1925–1965 | spouse = Margaret Bourke Slavin (1916–1950) (her death) Peggy Bernice Allaire (1952–1967) (his death) | domesticpartner = | death_cause = lung cancer | children = Vance DeBar Colvig, Jr. (1918-1991) William Mason Colvig (1920–1992) Byington Ford Colvig (1921–1996) Bourke L. Colvig (1922–1985) Courtney X. Colvig (1931–1990) | parents = William Mason Colvig (father) (1845–1936) Adelaide Birdseye Colvig (mother) (1856–1912) | website = | awards = | resting place = Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City }} Vance DeBar "Pinto" Colvig (September 11, 1892 – October 3, 1967) was an American Vaudeville actor, radio actor, Newspaper cartoonist, prolific movie voice actor and circus performer, whose schtick was playing the Clarinet off-key while mugging. Colvig is best known as the original Bozo The Clown, as well as the original voice of the famed Disney character Goofy. In 1993, he was posthumously created a Disney Legend for his contributions to Walt Disney films including Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Dumbo. Personal life Colvig was born Vance DeBar Colvig in Jacksonville, Oregon, one of seven children of Judge William Mason Colvig (1845–1936) and wife Adelaide Birdseye Colvig (1856–1912).Medford Pioneers Although William Colvig was a pioneer, an attorney and a distinguished Oregonian, he was never actually a judge. Pinto graduated from Oregon State University in 1911 at age 18. After marrying Margaret Bourke Slavin (1892–1950) in 1916, he settled with his wife in San Francisco, where four of their five boys were born (their last son was born in Los Angeles).Oregon Encyclopedia A lifelong smoker, Colvig was one of the pioneers in advocating warning labels about cancer risk on cigarette packages in the United States. Colvig was the father of the character and voice actor Vance Colvig, who also later portrayed Bozo the Clown on a live TV program. Career In 1916, Pinto Colvig worked with Byington Ford and Benjamin Thackston Knight at the Animated Film Corp in San Francisco. The company produced animated cartoons over a decade before Walt Disney did. As Colvig's reputation grew, he worked for the Disney studio, the Warner Bros. animation studio, Fleischer Studios (Bluto, Gabby), and MGM, where he voiced a Munchkin in the 1939 release of The Wizard of Oz. He Directed (along with Erdman Penner and Walt Pfeiffer) the 1937 Mickey Mouse short Mickey's Amateurs and helped in the 1939 Looney Tunes cartoon Jeepers Creepers, as well as the 1942 cartoons Conrad the Sailor and Ding Dog Daddy. Colvig is probably best known as the original voice of Disney's Goofy and the original Bozo the Clown, a part he played for a full decade beginning in 1946. It was during this period that Colvig recorded the "Filbert the Frog" song, which featured Colvig's virtuoso use of the glottal stop as a musical instrument in itself. He is also the second known voice of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. Other notable characters he voiced include Practical Pig, the pig who built the "house of bricks" in the Disney short Three Little Pigs, as well as both Sleepy (who originally was supposed to be voiced by Sterling Holloway) and Grumpy in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and the barks for Pluto the dog. He also provided Ichabod Crane's screams in The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad. In 1922, he created a newspaper cartoon panel titled "Life on the Radio Wave" for the San Francisco Chronicle. The feature ran 3-4 times per week on the newspaper's radio page, and lasted six months. Death Colvig died of lung cancer on October 3, 1967, in Woodland Hills, California, at age 75. He was interred at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City. See also * Mel Blanc * Disney Legend | ProfessionalHistory = | Notes = | Trivia = | OfficialWebsite = | Links = References External links * * ABC News Investigates Bozo's Origin (2001) * ABC News: Bozo Finally Unmasked (2004) * Associated Press: Who's the First Bozo? (2004) * Pinto Colvig - the original Bozo the Clown * Find a Grave (parents) * Ancestry (marriages and children) * Pinto Colvig Archives at Southern Oregon Historical Society }} Category:Vaudeville performers Category:American cartoonists Category:American circus performers Category:American male radio actors Category:American male voice actors Category:20th-century American male actors Category:Oregon State University alumni Category:Deaths from lung cancer Category:1892 births Category:1967 deaths Category:Cancer deaths in California Category:People from Jacksonville, Oregon Category:Burials at Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City